A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Regarding the Dec. 10 Harry’s Gang column by Pete Radosevich about U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and his vote against the infrastructure bill last month: Maybe, just maybe, Pete Stauber wanted a vote of true infrastructure (roads, bridges). What percentage of all these Build Back Better measures go to honest, hard infrastructure. I challenge Pete (as part-owner of the paper and publisher) to publish what is in the bill or at least the top 20 or 25 items. Fix our roads and bridges but leave all the junk out. Tony Sheda, Wrenshall...
The popular Bentleyville Tour of Lights was born in Carlton County in 2001 and is now the biggest Christmas season event in Duluth’s Bayfront Park. We are proud of its Carlton County heritage and with how the display seems to get better and better every year. Last year Covid kept visitors in their cars for a drive-through experience, but the high number of vaccinated people in Minnesota, along with the cold weather, has allowed the event to return to its stroll-through format, letting people linger as long as they want, mingle, and tour the dis...
The loud, disruptive protest at a recent Cloquet School Board meeting by a local resident of the school district was a shameful display of chutzpah, ignorance and entitlement. People seem to think that government officials work for them. They don’t. Cops work for the police department; highway maintenance crews work for the county, and teachers work for the school district. The school district is led by members of the school board, who are elected to the job. They don’t work for you. It’s a com...
It’s never fun to talk about money, but we must. After three years, the Pine Knot News has overhauled its subscription rates, making them simpler and, yes, a little pricier. Rising postal rates and inflation bear some of the blame. Growing pains are also part of it. We’ve gone from a minimum of 16 pages to a minimum of 20 pages per week. There are more and better stories and local advertising in the paper. Our small army of freelance writers and part-time employees is growing too. As an independent, locally owned newspaper, we are a rare breed....
I’m disappointed that our representative in Congress voted against the infrastructure bill last month. It seems to me it was a great bill for our region, but U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber didn’t agree and voted against it. It was a mistake. It’s not hard for people to guess my political persuasion, but I try to limit my criticism (and my effusive praise) for specific actions by our leaders, because hypocrisy is destroying politics in our country. So, I’ve been pretty silent on Pete Stauber, a very ni...
This week’s snow reminded us that it’s time to shift into winter mode. That means we need to wear our hats and mittens, get out our brooms and shovels, and keep our cars off the streets at night. From Nov. 1 until March 31, in Cloquet, cars cannot be parked on the streets or in alleys between midnight and 6 a.m. In Esko, it’s prohibited between 4 and 7 a.m., and in Carlton, the hours are 3 to 6 a.m. Overnight parking in the winter has been prohibited for many years and should not be much of a surprise to most of us. But a nice reminder about...
We live like royalty in America. We have stores full of food and trinkets. We work only 40 hours a week. Some people work even less and some of us choose to work more. Nearly everyone has indoor bathrooms and heated houses, and, when we turn on the faucet, day or night, water comes out. Clean, drinkable water. No one has to hike to the nearest well and bring a bucket of water home. Our lights turn on when we flick a switch and our sewage flows away from our homes in enclosed pipes to a...
Hello, fellow Carlton County residents. I’m Pete Radosevich, the publisher of the Pine Knot News and an avid fan of our community. We are sending a copy of this newspaper to nearly every address in the county, so you can see what subscribers to the Pine Knot News already know — real journalism is alive and well in Carlton County, and it’s in the Pine Knot News. When five of us chipped in money to start the Pine Knot News three years ago, many people thought we were a little crazy. After all, who would start an old-fashioned newspaper in this...
Call us old-fashioned, but we love the printed newspaper. Aside from the simple joy of holding something in your hand and reading it (versus staring at yet another screen), there are many reasons to love the print version of a newspaper. In the age of the internet, why would we say that? No. 1: Nobody can change it. Once the paper is printed, it can’t be erased. It’s a permanent record of what was published that week. That includes news, legal advertisements, crime stories, obituaries and more. The historical society and the library offer acc...
Some people blame the two-party political system for many of our nation’s problems. I can understand why — it seems each party spends more time accusing the other party for everything wrong while taking credit for everything right. It can’t be that way, of course, but that’s what happens when politicians are constantly campaigning rather than serving their constituents. It’s a real problem. I interviewed longtime U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar once on “Harry’s Gang.” It was quite an honor, and I pr...
Until a month ago, I’d been to Hawaii exactly zero times. Then, in something of a Bucket-List-Moment, my daughter, her husband and their perfect-and-beautiful, baby — my third perfect-and-beautiful grandson — 15 months old and embarrassingly genius, heartbreakingly sensitive, flirtatiously affectionate and the perfect amount of manipulative — like everyone else’s grandkid, but just better — convinced me and my beautiful, embarrassingly genius, heartbreakingly sensitive and flirtatious...
Dear Editor, Thank you. I just finished reading your article "Covid comes knocking" and I deeply appreciate both your sensitivity and your fact-based reporting which lays out the relative risk of getting Covid when vaccinated and unvaccinated. Breakthrough Covid is real, and as the disease continues to ravage the unvaccinated and more virus continues to persist in our community, breakthrough cases will increase, particularly as the vaccine protection begins to wane. And still, as you reported, the risk of serious harm is quite small if you are...
The Nov. 5 Pine Knot article on the small number of cases in the Carlton County jail, from Minnesota Public Radio, was fantastic, considering all the people in and out of the building. Why does the article then have to go on to say that the people there should get vaccinated? They are doing very well with safety. Not everyone wants the shot and shouldn't be forced, pressured or bribed to get it. Stop pressuring people and let them choose for themselves. Ronald Eng Wrenshall...
We know as citizens of Carlton County that we are very fortunate. We live in one of the most bucolic domains of nature populated with magnificent forests, crystal clear streams, and multiple lakes creating a “little slice of heaven.” Folks are friendly and community-minded whether celebrating local festivals all year-round or fundraising for charities. The list of pluses could fill the whole paper, but the major reason we can celebrate our good fortune is that we are one of a diminishing lis...
Thumbs up to our local veterans groups and their auxiliaries. Not only did they serve our country, many continue that tradition of service here at home. On Veterans Day, they offered food to fellow military veterans free of charge, and next week the DAV will serve Thanksgiving dinner to anyone who wants it, also free of charge. Veterans serving in the various Honor Guard groups around the county offer time and comfort through ritual for grieving families. They lead our parades, and they lead by example. Americans who have forgotten what it is...
One of the questions I get most from clients is, “How do I avoid probate?” I can understand why they are so concerned — probate is an expensive process, but with careful planning, it can usually be avoided altogether. The other big concern is, “I don’t want the government to take my house if I have to go into the nursing home.” The facts are, most people don’t end up in a nursing home, and when they do, it’s most often for a short period of time (three to five weeks, to recover from an ailment...
After 12 years of living full-time in Red Clover Township, I’m beginning to understand the power of local ties and community. Growing up in an inner-ring Minneapolis suburb, we lived in a house cheek-to-jowl with other post-World War II single-family homes. All were recently built on post-WWII prosperity, expanded educational opportunities and federally subsidized home mortgage loans. My parents both graduated from the University of Minnesota in the late 1930s, then tuition-free, and each lived...
After reading Jana Peterson’s column “Let’s return to one American flag for all” in the Oct. 29 Pine Knot, I want to say “thank you” for writing so well what has been on my mind lately. The last four or more years have been so full of flags — often not representing events or ideas I support — that I felt negativity when seeing the American flag. Lately, I’ve been thinking about why that is and how I could somehow take back the flag for myself. I really don’t want whatever action I take to be just another move that causes more division. I wa...
A salute to the VFW and Legion auxiliary volunteers who worked tirelessly to prepare a delicious turkey dinner for our comrades in arms on Veterans Day. A local bumper sticker bolsters the kudos: “If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it’s in English, thank a soldier.” I’m a grateful vet. William Fleisch, Cloquet...
Another Veterans Day has come and gone. We hope you were able to meet up with one on Thursday. If patterns continue, it will likely be much more difficult to find a veteran in our midst in the future. That’s what we’ve found in looking at statistics, mostly from the U.S. Census, about population trends. The following is a short explanation from the Census on what is happening to our veteran population. We follow that up with some of the numbers we’ve collected. “The number of veterans in the United States has been declining for decades...
One of the rallying cries in the war of misinformation we have seen in the last few years is the phrase “Do your own research.” There’s nothing more frightening than some misinformed person, swayed by propaganda pushed on them by people with a hidden agenda, getting bolder in their misconceptions because they have justified their erroneous views by “doing their own research.” I studied the sciences in college before going to law school and I’ve worked in the news reporting fields over the ye...
The Perch Lake Township Board of Supervisors joins with township residents to express our total disappointment in the lack of proper planning by the Carlton County Engineer’s Office in not providing a proper pathway along Big Lake Road. Residents of Perch Lake depended on such a pathway in the past. It offered an alternative to motorized vehicles for recreation and work-related activities. The limited pathway resulting from the Big Lake Road project is simply unsuitable for bikers and walkers as it is too narrow, causing safety concerns. In t...
According to Merriam-Webster, a coach is “one who instructs players in the fundamentals of a sport and directs team strategy.” There is so much missing from that definition. In late July, Otto Berti asked me if I’d help coach the Superior JV boys soccer team and assist varsity. I took the leap. Not just me, but my family let me be gone weeknights and Saturdays. It was a lot, but the reward was great. One of the things we talked about was the difference between a team and a family. Team does not equal family. Family loves unconditionally witho...
Duane Laveau said "every deer in Carlton County is out in my field at night." With the Minnesota deer hunting season in full swing, a lot of hunters are hoping for the same thing. Laveau, a local land steward and dairy farmer, said the deer were plentiful in a conversation with Carlton Soil and Water District staff last week regarding the more than 18 acres of cover crops he broadcast seeded between rows of corn in June. Just like most farmers in our region, Laveau was hesitant to try something...
We need to remind people who are visiting Pedro’s, the popular Mexican restaurant in downtown Cloquet, that the new location is adjacent to a dense residential neighborhood that isn’t prepared to handle the influx of people parking in their streets and driveways. The old location, just a few blocks away, had no off-street parking, but it was surrounded by other downtown businesses — not homes — on streets that were designed to handle commercial parking. The new location, in the old Eagles Club building, has a small parking lot but is adjacen...
